Welcome!

We’re honored and grateful that you are here. ShenCoLAB was started as a radical experiment to support great learning by giving our students the time and space to develop and lead collaborative and innovative projects.

Its successful launch four years ago — driven by student enthusiasm and enabled by funding from the Dean's Circle — quickly confirmed its value. ShenCoLAB enables students to not only do work that deeply matters to them, but it equips them for professional success. It requires teamwork, perseverance, creative thinking, courageous and thoughtful risk-taking, and comfort with innovative enterprise. I’m grateful to the ShenCoLAB Taskforce for preparing and managing this festival week. And I'm grateful to the Dean's Circle for their continued visionary support!

As many of you know, Shenandoah Conservatory has provided a nurturing home to aspiring artists for over 140 years. Beyond being one of the few conservatories in the nation where excellence is pursued across the performing arts disciplines — music, theatre and dance — we are especially proud to be the country's leading performing arts school for collaborative learning and creation with initiatives such as ShenCoLAB.

Dr. Michael Stepniak
Dean & Professor of Music
Shenandoah Conservatory